Author: Krista

This year at BlogJam we are thrilled to provide an opportunity to pair bloggers and brands for what we’re calling a Quick Pitch. This is your chance to have a brief chat about potential partnership opportunities in the future. Each pitch will be 10 minutes and bloggers are encouraged to bring their media kits, business cards, and great ideas.

Participating Quick Pitch brands are:

If you’ve never pitched a brand before, this is your chance to do so amongst friends. Ten minutes is a great amount of time to experience, ask questions, and explore opportunities. No foul balls can happen here!

Elayna Fernández, known worldwide as The Positive MOM, is an award-winning storyteller, a master digital strategist, and an avid student of pain. Elayna helps moms transform their pain story into positive growth, step into balance, and create joy and success on their own terms — in all areas of life.

Elayna travels the world as an International keynote speaker and panelist in the topics of motherhood, mindset, and mompreneurship. Her guidance encourages, empowers, and equips millions of moms in 134 countries to increase their impact, income, and influence, without guilt, shame, or regrets in motherhood.

Elayna is Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer, Certified Passion Test Facilitator, Certified Success Principles Trainer, a graduate of the Steve Harvey School for Business Acceleration, and a web designer for over 20 years. She has been awarded as Best Marketer, Mom Entrepreneur of the Year, Best Latina Lifestyle Blogger of both 2015 and 2016, and the 2017 Best Family and Parenting Creator at the TECLA Awards, and she has been named one of the Top Latina Influencers in the USA two consecutive years. ThePositiveMOM.com, has been ranked one of 100 Top Moms Blogs Worldwide both in 2016 and 2017.

Elayna is often featured in global media, has spoken on prestigious stages, and has partnered with hundreds of brands in her 13-year mompreneur journey.

Born and raised in a slum in the Dominican Republic, Elayna now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her loving husband and 3 homeschooled daughters.

Pitch Perfect

Ever looked at another influencer and wondered how they got that AWESOME gig? Julie will delve into the aspects of PITCHING!! Roll up your sleeves and let’s dive into branding, media kits, offers and finding contacts! Fantastic partnerships don’t just happen, Julie will share some insights to help you develop your own pitch perfect approach.

Julie Elsdon-Height is co-founder of SJ Consulting, a digital marketing firm and founder of Life Straight Up! SoberJulie.com is a popular Canadian lifestyle blog established in 2010. Known as @SoberJulie online, Julie has been studying the online marketscape for a decade and is a wealth of knowledge for influencer/Brand relationships.

How to not Start a Blog for a Whole Year – A Cautionary Tale

As a blogger, Millennials Career Coach Ali Breen is just beginning. And she’s been “just beginning” for well…um…a whole year now. Are you stuck at the start? Ali flips the how-to model upside down in this cautionary-tale session, offering an in-the-trenches outlook and tangible “try this instead” tips, worksheets and activities. Her funny, frustrating and real-life journey can help you avoid pitfalls, pitstops and procrastination on the road to starting your own beauty of a blog. Oh, and she’s all kinds of funny. Bring your laughing/crying emojis people! Also bring cake. Seriously, a cake offering is required to attend the session. JK…sort of. (We made her write “JK'” but she really wants cake & advises you to “make good choices people, just sayin”).

As a blogger, Ali is just beginning. As an award-winning writer, who has loved writing since she was a wee one, it’s bonkers that she hasn’t had a blog before now. Feel the same way? From “get lost in the tech weeds” to “be super jealous when all your blogger friends get invited to a flashy foodie event” she offers real-life tips on how to avoid ever starting your blog in this funny, refreshing beginner’s story.

Ali Breen is a Millennials Career Coach, avid #SupportLocal champion, Kinda/Sorta/Almost Blogger and all-around good time gal, bringing her bare-naked heart to BlogJam this year to share her strategies for first timers. Offering an in-the-trenches outlook and tangible “try this instead” tips, worksheets and activities, her journey can help you avoid pitfalls, pitstops and procrastination on the road to starting your own beauty of a blog.

Ali believes that your career can and should be a reflection of who you are and how you want to be in the world. She uses story-based, narrative coaching to help clients get clear about what they want and how & when they can actually get it. As a past corporate recruiter and bilingual career practitioner in non-profit employment centres, Ali has experience from both sides of the Career Management table. She offers a refreshing break and realistic divergence from the cookie-cutter career advice and tools that are outdated and (mostly) broken.

Her blog is a blend of career advice for young professionals, #howtodeal tips for parents of Millennials and epic wins from & for this often maligned generation. She has brought her energy and expertise as a presenter to Fusion Halifax, Clean NS, NS Career Development Association and countless workshop rooms. She co-founded the first bilingual career centre in Halifax, boosts up those around her, organizes and volunteers at epic events and is well…kind of a big deal.

Cooking with Gas: How to Use Social Media to Promote your Blog

Social media and blogging go together like peanut butter and jam (oh yeah, I used a jam pun). What good is all the work you’re doing to put your amazeballs content together if nobody is coming to read it? Social media gas to the rescue (I’ll leave the other kind of gas to Alison Knott)! Join me to learn how to use the most common social networks to get more eyeballs on your blog.

When the first generation of bloggers emerged in the late 90s, Twirp Communications founder Anita Kirkbride carved out her own digital space and promptly decorated it with cardstock and rubber stamps. Her blogging career expanded from there, and now she shares everything she knows about social media at twirp.ca.

Get Covered! How to Get Your Byline and Name in Top Digital Publications

If you’ve ever dreamed of getting your byline in Forbes or Huffington Post, this is the session for you. A publicist by day, blogger by night, Crystal will share her best tips, tricks, and secret sauces to getting your content and name into the hands of editors at some of internet’s top digital publications. Time to get covered!

Crystal Richard is known around these waters as the East Coast Mermaid (after her lifestyle + travel blog of the same name) but she’s also the Owner + President of Crystal Richard & Co., a digital marketing & PR consulting biz helping startups, entrepreneurs, and brands create and tell stories that will attract a tribe of raving fans. A global storyteller, Crystal helps passionate entrepreneurs from Cape Town to San Francisco get media coverage and bylines in leading online publications such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, the New York Times, Inc. and more. Over her career as a publicist, she has brokered HGTV pilots and landed her client on the Steve Harvey Show. This past summer, she founded her own side hustle the Sandy Toes Shop and her first book, Get Covered! hits the shelves in January 2018. She will be the first to admit that her cat with thumbs was Instagram famous first. Ask her about it at BlogJam!

How Storytelling Will Transform Your Business

Creating amazing content and knowing how to deliver can be a challenge. Chantal will walk you through how to create content that resonates. By sharing questions you need to ask yourself before every post. Tips on best ways to stay authentic and how to attract your ideal audience, and why your story matters.

Chantal is a Halifax based photographer. A self-proclaimed wild child of the East Coast, she loves adventures and laughter. She has been named Most Inspiring Wedding Photographers in Canada for 2015 & 2016, and featured in People, Women’s Health, 100 Layercake, Phoblographer and numerous other international publications. What she loves is connecting most with inspiring people, a camera is how she shares their story with the world.

Blog with Passion: What I Wish I’d Known Before I Started my Blog

Participants can expect to be taken on a journey through all the “mistakes” Erin made while building her blog to what it is today. The hope is that being open and honest about stumbles will help you avoid them along your path to blogging goodness. From understanding when to take a technical leap, to knowing her true value when negotiating with sponsors, to blog design, content planning and more – Erin will highlight the five key things she wishes she’d known before becoming a blogger.

Erin Trafford is the creative force behind DIY Passion; a home and lifestyle blog established in 2012 and based in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. Over the years, DIY Passion has developed a solid readership of tens of thousands each month. Erin tackles projects from major renovations, small home updates, simple decorating and more. With a strong social media presence and a weekly videos and Facebook Live updates, DIY Passion is a go-to resource for all things “home.”

DIY Passion has been featured around the Internet in dozens of online publications, including About.com, HGTV.com, Apartment Therapy, Hometalk, Better Homes and Gardens and more. As a blogger and influencer, Erin has worked with large Canadian and American brands such as The Home Depot, Minwax, Ryobi Power Tools, DAP, Wicker Emporium, and Atlantic Credit Unions to name a few. Most recently, DIY Passion was nominated for The Coast’s Best of Halifax Awards. Erin also recently launched a podcast called In The Storyhouse that digs into the complex relationships between bloggers, readers, brands, marketing agencies and more.

Travel Writing Tips

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Travel Writer? Seeing your word in print from glossy magazines to newspapers. Learn the basic steps to getting your foot in the door of Travel Writing, and how to get noticed in a highly competitive market.

Tiffany Thornton is a travel seeker and word wanderer, who loves capturing memories through her journeys, writing about them and watching the written word unfold into stories. Her travel stories have been published in USA Today, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, West Jet magazine, Canadian Traveller and many more. Tiffany is a contributing writer on National Geographic’s book ‘Journeys home’ available in book stores and online throughout North America.

For the Love of Blogging

BlogJam Atlantic was created to help cultivate an inclusive community of like-minded individuals that shared a love for blogging. When we brought our idea to fruition three years ago we had no idea how fast and how big we would grow. To say thank you to our expanding community we decided to partner with Shelter Nova Scotia to help spread some love and goodwill.

We Cannot Do It Alone

If you have ever faced a difficult time in your life you will no doubt know that helping hands become very important. Shelter Nova Scotia supports people in times of crisis and transition through residential, trustee and outreach programs. They operate 6 facilities in HRM providing a night of rest for up to 159 people per night to those who are in crisis or transition.

BlogJam Atlantic has invited Shelter Nova Scotia to our event on November 5th, to help collect monetary donations and personal care items. They are always looking for new socks, water bottles, deodorant, razors, toothbrushes, bus tickets, facecloths, shampoo, and conditioner.

From My HOME to Yours

When BlogJammers bring along one of the above items or make a monetary donation they will be entered to win a prize pack from My HOME Apparel. When you arrive at the event be sure to find one of our volunteers (they will be decked out in My HOME Apparel shirts) and they will happily accept your donation and make sure your name gets entered into the draw. Let’s show our community how awesome we are. Big kudos go out to My HOME Apparel for partnering with us to help make this happen.

How You Can Help Right Now

Listen, we get it. Sometimes we are not in a position to donate all that we would like to give. But there is another way that you can help make a big difference. In fact, Shelter Nova Scotia could use your support right now. They have entered the AVIVA community fund competition to win $100,000 for a new kitchen at Metro Turning Point. You can find more information here. Or find them on Facebook or Twitter. Take a few seconds, make a few clicks and before you know it, you will have made a difference. The deadline for voting is October 19, 2017.